Do y'unz know how to touch type?

[Bill McBlueState]

Poll question: Do y'unz know how to touch type?

I've evolved a pretty quick hunt-and-peck system at the keyboard. For whatever reason, I use my left index finger and thumb, and my right index and middle fingers. But I don't have to look at the keyboard very closely, although I do make a lot of typos. Maybe it's time I learned how to type like I know what I'm doing. Maybe it would save me some time.

Or is it even worth it?

Am I in a weird minority here for refusing to learn how to type properly?

[gator_in_Ontario]

1. I can touch type...

as long as the lights are on and my eyes are on the keys I am touching!

[Skittles]

2. yes I can touch type

and I despise having to train people at work who cannot touch type. Having to look at the keyboard slows you down. You don't catch mistakes immediately. For example, it adds a good half hour to a full system shut down. Aren't people taking typing classes anymore?????

[Bill McBlueState]

6. in my p.o.s. high school...

You for some reason took either band, choir, or typing. I was in band, so I was never forced to take a typing class. And I totally lacked the foresight to take one on my own.

My wife types like 30,000 words a minute and gets a good laugh out of my keyboard skills.

[Skittles]

15. it's never too late, WMass

surely typing classes are still taught somewhere.

[XNASA]

3. "Son, you should take a typing class............

...you never know. It might come in handy."

That's what my Dad said to me back in 1972. Truer words were never spoken. I can shred on the keyboard...with my eyes closed.

(BTW - I typed this entire post in under 3 seconds.) ;-)

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. I learned to type in high school

By Mr. Heutter, a guy who really closely resembled Sweetchuck from the Police Academy movies.

:D

Now I can type about 70 wpm.

Thank you Sly Brown Fox...

[mac56]

5. At my last job, the Gen-Y'er who was training me in...

asked me, "Do you know how to work a typewriter?"

Apparently she hadn't had to use one anytime throughout her education.

Remind me to invest overseas.

[meti57b]

7. when I was a kid, my father made me learn to touch-type, ...

considering I couldn't see any reason I would need to be able to do that in a technical field. I think he wanted to make sure I could at least get a job in something.

If he had any idea of how much fun touch-typing was going to bring me at some time in the future, (with computers and the internet), he probably wouldn't have let me anywhere near a typewriter.

[slackmaster]

8. 60+ words per minute once I get warmed up

On a good keyboard, unlike the sticky, cruddy, mushy POS I'm using right now.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. I Type Like A Pro, But. . .

. . .it's not 'cuz i'm cool! My mother has been a transcriptionist since about 1951. So, i learned how to touchtype before i knew how to write in cursive.

When i was in HS, i went to the first day of Typing Class, sophomore year. When the teacher was done with the whole posture and hand position thing, he wanted people to practice the ASDF :LKJ thing. I started typing the book's page.

Thinking i was clowning, he came over a tore the paper off the staten. Sure enough it was the book page. He said "Why don't you just spend this class in the gym shooting baskets. You already type faster than me."

Made some cash in college typing papers, since i was able to do about 75wpm on a manual and about 85 on an electric. Easy money, since i had to type my own stuff anyway.

So, i type like a pro, because i got paid for it. But, that doesn't make me cool. Actually, it's probably a little nerdy.
The Professor

[gristy]

30. "Why don't you just spend this class in the gym shooting baskets."

So, what kind of basketball player are you? :)

[MissMillie]

10. 80 words per minute

learning how to type will save you some time. I definitely think it's worth it... and chances are you can by a software tutorial so it won't be an expensive proposition.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. I learned to type in school on a typewriter, NON - electric

.
.
.

with BLANK keys!!

that's right, they were "naked" not a thing on them . .

Teacher had a pull down chart way up on the ceiling that she would pull down for practicing, it was simple for her to see who spent most of their time looking up -

and of course the chart was out of sight for tests,

and nope, no quick erase or spell-check either !

a bell warned you when you were near the end of the line, and you had to manually "return" the carriage to the beginning to continue typing

Can you IMAGINE -

all that physical exercise !

and was around 60wpm then, a little faster now,

well, when I don't have any :toast: to distract me :silly:

[Bridget Burke]

Same setup--non-electric, blank keys--in summer school.

Four hours a day in a non-air-conditioned classroom in Pasadena, Texas (hard by the paper mill). No time for typing in my college-prep schedule--Mom thought it might be useful. Glad I did it.

There's some pretty cool "keyboarding" software. Simple exercise & games make it easy to learn.

[Bridget Burke]

25. Same setup--non-electric, blank keys--in summer school.

Four hours a day in a non-air-conditioned classroom in Pasadena, Texas (hard by the paper mill). No time for typing in my college-prep schedule--Mom thought it might be useful. Glad I did it.

There's some pretty cool "keyboarding" software. Simple exercise & games make it easy to learn.

[Blue-Jay]

12. I have to look, but I'm pretty fast.

I keep meaning to get some tutorial software, but then I'll see something shiny and forget about it again.

[LuLu550]

13. I have my own, pathetic touch type

hit the worng keys all the time look at the keys use whatever finger I want to method.

[Bill McBlueState]

14. heh, heh, nobody for option 3 yet

If the guy who works in the office across the hall were reading, he'd be for option 3. I can hear him, banging out one key at a time, really loudly. His keyboard can't last much longer under such abuse!

But he's a professor, pushing 70. At least he's not making the secretary do all his work for him. :)

[tsakshaug]

16. 9th grade typing

hate to say it, that was the most useful class I took in HS. I remember the blank keys and whacking the carrage return. My eight year old can touch type, but the older brothers cannot, he is slow but does not pratice enough.

Hey WMass- where in western mass?

former pittsfieldian

[Bill McBlueState]

19. live in Sunderland, work in Amherst (UMass)

:)

[afraid_of_the_dark]

17. IM helped me out more than my

wimpy 5 week-long class that I took in junior high. Sure, it taught me the basics - where you place your fingers, which finger you use to hit certain keys, etc. But the real help for me was going into chatrooms or IMing - it really increased my typing speed!

[zbdent]

18. You misspelled 'yinz'

(but actually, you used the original spelling and pronunciation!).

Apollo PA, former home area.

[Bill McBlueState]

21. used to live ~near Pgh

I grew up in southeast Ohio, about 2 hours from Pittsburgh.

So are you saying I've inadvertently used a form of Old Pittsburghese? I didn't realize the spelling had changed, 'n 'at.

[zbdent]

22. Actually, after I posted it, I realized that the original post

didn't say you'ns.

I think that the fact that it became "accepted" meant that somebody had to spell it.

Pittsburgh is a big originator of the word 'yinz'. It pretty much designates you as a southwest PAer.

I had forgotten about how prevalent it was until I stopped off on the turnpike Exit 3 to get some grub, and the counterperson asked: "How yinz doin'?".

[Bill McBlueState]

23. sometimes I can get Myron Cope on the radio

during Steelers games. I love how he creatively mangles the language. He's pretty much a master of the SW-PA dialect.

[zbdent]

26. hmm, ha

Say what you will about how stupid he sounds, but he knows his stuff about sports.

I always did wonder where a little guy like him got so knowledgable about sports. Doesn't seem like he'd actually play. Maybe he did, in school, but never really was big enough to "make it".

[RoadRunner]

20. Only thing useful I learned in high school.

Sure wish I had spell check back then, tho.

[Dookus]

24. Yup...

best class I ever took in High School.

Don't even need a spell-checker, either. They covered spelling in elementary school :)

[Ediacara]

27. The "home position" taught in keyboarding classes it totally lame

I am a hunt and pecker, and I type much faster than people using the home position. Plus, the home position hurts my hands and I am convinced adherence to it is what causes carpal tunnel syndrome.

[Red State Rebel]

28. 95 wpm :)

[arwalden]

29. I Learned The Mavis Beacon Way... On An Apple IIe

After several years of hunt-n-peck.... then finally two-finger-pecking... I decided that it would be best if I could actually transcribe a written page without having to look at the keys.

One of the best things I ever did. I recommend it very much.


-- Allen

[Melsky]

31. I typed 67 wpm last time I checked

I learned on some sort of cheap software out of the five dollar bin as an adult.

[LastKnight]

32. i can do traditional and One handed styles

either hand (on the one handed style) can do the all the typing, if needed, but its better with my left hand even though im right handed. this came from extensive video game playing (games like everquest where its hard to type and play at the same time, so i learned one handed typing, so i can use the mouse while i type.)

and oddly i make more typos when using the traditional style.

-LK

[TrogL]

33. I've been typing since Grade 5

My handwriting became so illegible I was failing school. My parents sent me to business college to learn to type and bought me an electric typewriter (which I destroyed in two years from over-use). Suddenly I was getting A's.

On edit, I've been clocked at 120 wpm. People in the office are afraid of me.